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Pentecost: Feast of the Descent of the Holy
Spirit
The real beginning of the
history of the Church, is the feast of Pentecost of 30 AD.
On the tenth day after the Ascension of our Lord Jesus
Christ, His disciples, His Mother, some other holy women and
some of those Jews who came to believe in Him, (about 120 in
all) were gathered in a home on mount Zion. As was usual,
they were spending their time in prayer and in awaiting the
promised Holy Spirit, when all of a sudden there was a noise
from heaven as of rushing wind that filled the whole house
where they were. And there appeared tongues of fire that
spread out and rested on each person. And they were filled
by the Holy Spirit and began to converse in other languages.
This day was the Jewish feast
of the Pentecost that commemorated the giving of the Law on
Mount Sinai. Because of this there were many people in
Jerusalem from different lands. When they heard this unusual
noise in the air, they started gathering near the house
where the apostles had been. They were surprised to hear,
each in his own tongue, the wonderful works of God. “And
they were all amazed . . . saying one to another, ‘What
meant this?’ Others were mocking saying, ‘These men are full
of new wine.’ But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted
up his voice and said unto them, ‘Ye men of Ju dea and all ye
who dwell in Jerusalem, be this known to you, and hearken to
my words. For these are not drunk as you suppose, seeing it
is but the third hour of the day [nine in the morning
according to our time]’” (Acts 2:12-16). The time of
fulfillment of the prophecies had come, when the Spirit of
God would come down on those faithful to Him. “Ye men of
Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved
of God among you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God
did through Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also
know - Him, being delivered up in accordance with the
established plan and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and
by wicked hands have crucified and slain. But God hath
raised Him up, having loosed the pains of death, because it
was not possible that He should be held” (Acts 2:22-24).
These words of Peter, suggested
to him by the Holy Spirit deeply moved the people, and on
that day about three thousand people were baptized in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Such was the beginning of the
spreading of the Gospel, that through the apostles and their
disciples it first spread throughout Judea, and then
throughout the world.
From the time when the Holy
Spirit passed over the apostles like “a sound from heaven as
of a rushing mighty wind” (Acts 2:2) and when “there
appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire, and it sat
upon each of them” (Acts 2:3), they became different people.
Those, who had just recently ran in fear from the garden of
Gethsemane, now began a world-wide bringing forth of the
Gospel. They were not to be stopped by threats, torture, or
death. They were followed by ever new generations of
witnesses and martyrs for Christ. Mighty rulers armed
against them, philosophers opposed them, great temptations
were put in their path - but crucified, burned, perishing in
the arenas of gladiators, they stood firm in the strength of
the Holy Spirit. Troubling waves of false Christians,
unworthy pastors, false teachers and dissenters crashed over
them - but nothing can destroy the Church of Christ. In the
words of our Divine Teacher: “I will build My church and the
gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matt.16:18).
His
Beatitude Theophilos III, Patriarch of Jerusalem celebrating
Pentecost Sunday at the Church of the Anastasis - or, as
it's known in the Latin West, the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
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